In The News

Fighting Over the Best and the Brightest

Carsten Germis August 20, 2004
Losing one’s intelligentsia is not just the bane of developing countries. Germany, which boasts the largest economy of Europe, has sent so many of its sons and daughters to America in academic capacities that now Germans make up the third-largest group of foreign academics in the US. In raw numbers, that puts Germany’s US academic expatriate community at 20,000, with three out of four...

Power of Information Technology Awaits Unleashing

William Mougayar July 1, 2004
With no conclusive outcome reached at the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society, developing countries will continue to lag behind developed countries in the vital Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The author, William Mougayar, an independent scholar and management consultant, opines that the meeting should have focused on important issues such as network...

Can of Worms?

Gamal Nkrumah June 25, 2004
Al-Qaeda may have penetrated deep into the Saudi security apparatus, says this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. Officials deny that there is a problem and are working hard to contain the terrorists, even killing Al-Qaeda’s reputed leader in Saudi Arabia last Friday. But the rapid replacement of this man by Al-Oufi, a former policeman and war veteran of Afghanistan, suggests both the...

Unravelling 'Enlightened Moderation'

Masooda Bano June 18, 2004
In a critical rejoinder to an article by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Masooda Bano chastise Musharraf for calling on all Muslims to "bow unquestioningly to US demands." The "apologetic mindset" Musharraf evidences is an insult to Muslims worldwide and overlooks the achievements and strengths of many Muslims. He accepts that Muslim groups are responsible for...

Court Limits Sales on eBay

Kristina Merkner June 18, 2004
A Frankfurt court has decided that it will enforce a German law allowing publishers to fix the prices of their books. An entrepreneurial journalist who had sold about 40 review copies of a book on the online auction site, eBay, was in violation of the law, the court said. There was some legal debate over whether European Union free-trade regulation made the law invalid, but the German book...

Private Schools Asked to Revise Textbooks

Mohsen Rashid June 15, 2004
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all private schools – regardless of the curricula they teach – might soon come under the strict control of Islamic social and religious codes. This article in the Khaleej Times reports that all private schools have been ordered by the Ministry of Education and Youth to revise their textbooks in order to disallow ideas and concepts contrary to Islamic teachings....

Islam and West: Time for Enlightened Moderation

Pervez Musharraf June 2, 2004
The events of the recent past have brought the Muslim world to a state of emergency, writes Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan. The world perception of Muslims as violent extremists has placed the moderate and peaceful faithful – the “innocent multitudes” – at odds with the world. The proliferation of suicide bombers and the events of 9/11 have bred a deep fear in the West of Islam and its...